cultural academia pt. 2
here’s pt. 1
This is a continuation of spreading cultural books to end eurocentrism in academia. There’s definitely more “dark academia” books that fit the aesthetic this time around! Thank you to everyone who added books in the notes of the first post- I just put all those suggestions together in this list so complete credit to everyone who made these suggestions <3
Chinese:
Shen Congwen
Geling Yan
From Emperor to Citizen
Life and Death in Shanghai by Niem Cheng
Jin Ping Mei by Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng
Japanese:
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
Sonezaki Shinju by Chikamatsu Monzaemon
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
Works of Oe
Tosa Nikki by Ki no Tsurayuki
Torikaebaya Monogatari
Ise Monogatari by Ariwara no Narihira
A Fool’s Love by Tanizaki Jun’ichiro
The Golden Death by Tanizaki Jun’ichiro
Hell Scene
I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki
The Strange Tale of Panorama Island by Edogawa Ranpo
The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai
The Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
Flower Tales by Yoshiya Nobuko
Books of Hayashi Fumiko
Books of Enchi Fumiko
The Demon’s Sermon on the Marrial Arts by Issao Chozanshi
Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
Fool’s Life by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Rashomon by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Thai:
Garin’s Uncanny Files
Irani/Persian:
Disoriental by Negar Djavadi
Mesopotamia:
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Pakistani:
Poetry of Allama Iqbal
Works of Saadat Hassan Manto
My Feudal Lordand Blasphemy by Tehmina Durrani
The Reluctant Fundmamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Raja Gidh by Bano Qudsia
Four Tragic Romances of Punjab (Heer Ranjha, Mirza Sahiba, Sassi Punnun, and Sohni Mahiwal)
The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa
Indian:
Ramayana by Valmiki
Nonviolent Soldier of Islam by Eknath Easwaran
The Wildlings by Nilanjana Roy
Sivagamiyin Sapatham by Kalki Krishnamurthy
Chitralekha
Chandralekha
Rabindranath Tagore’s short stories
Works of Satyajit Rai
Byomkesh Bakshi
Munshi Premchand (Godan, Gaban, Nirmala)
The River Sutra
Mehlua
(comics)
Nagraj
Chacha Choudhary
Lotpot
Champak
Nandan
Vikram Betal
(poets)
The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu
Gitanjali
Works of Ruskin Bond
Mahadevi Verma
Hajari Prasad Divedi
Arabian:
Hayy Ibn Yaqzan by Ibn Tufail (he lived in Al-Andalus but was Arab I believe)
Filipino:
Works of Nick Joaquin
Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan
The Eight Muses of the Fall By Edgar Calabia Samar
Isabelo’s Archive by Resil B. Mojares
Noli Me Tangere by Dr. Jose Rizal
El Filibusterismo by Dr. Jose Rizal
Indonesian:
Buru Quartet by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Saman by Ayu Utami
The Years of the Voiceless
Beauty is Wound by Eka Kurniawan
Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan
(poets)
Sapardi Djoko Darmono
Chairil Anwar
Sustardji Calzoum Bachri
W.S. Rendra
Taufik Ismail
Wiji Thukul
NH Dini
Dee Lestari
Mira W.
Malaysian:
Garden of Evening Mists
Brazilian:
O Ateneu by Raul Pompeia
Ursula by Maria Firmino
The Hidden Cause; The Alienist by Machado de Assis (short stories)
The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma by Lima Barreto
Barren Lives by Graciliano Ramos
Child of the Dark by Carolina Maria de Jesus
Rebellion in the Backlands by Euclides da Cunha
Macunaima by Mario de Andrade
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
Captain of the Sands by Jorge Amado
Auto da Compadecida by Ariano Suassuna
City of God by Paulo Lins
Budapest by Chico Buarque
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis
Poems by Vinicius de Moraes
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
Antologia Poetica by Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Senhora by Jose de Alencar
Colombian:
Works of William Ospina
Chilean:
Works of Isabelle Allende
Mexican:
Poems by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Laura Esquivel
El Vampiro de la Colonia Roma by Luis Zapata Quiroz
(authors)
Gerardo Murillo
Ruben M Campos
Maria Enriqueta Camarillo de Pereya
Aura by Carlos Fuentes
El Llano by Juan Rulfo
La Casa Junto Al Rio by Elena Garro
Amparo Davila
Guadalipe Duenas
Ines Arredondo
Fransisco Tario
Max Aub
Bernado Couto Castillo
Amado Nervo
Adriana Diaz Enciso
Emiliano Gonzalez
H. Pascal (poetry of vampires and ghosts)
Tequila Gotico: Literatura Gotica en Mexico (published in magazine/good intro to gothic lit in Mexico)
Argentinian:
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato
Short Stories of Jorge Luis Borges
Nigerian:
Americanah by Chimamanda Adiche
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
Malian:
Fatoumata Keita
Senegalese:
Amadou Kane
Cheik Anta Diop
Sudanese:
Season of Migration to the North
Native American:
Works of Leslie Marmon Silko
Canadian:
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Ghanan-Canadian)
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese (Indigenous Canadian-Ojibwe)
Birdie by Tracie Lindberg (Indigenous Canadian-Cree)
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican-Canadian)
British:
White Teeth by Zadie Smith (Jamaican-British)
American:
Works of Gwendolyn Brooks
Works of Langston Hughes
A Naked Singularity by Sergio de la Pava (Colombian-American)
Once again, if your country wasn’t included, that doesn’t mean it’s not important!! Please continue to add more books with their countries in the notes and correct me if I’ve made a mistake!!
since a lot of people are getting into indie web stuff nowadays, I figured I'd post my collection of webmastery resources I've accumulated here!
full list under the cut, you can also view the list and other resources on my resource page (which contains resources for other things too, not just webmastery or programming). This post will probably be updated when I find more stuff too
Font selector code HTML - the HTML portion of code I made to implement a working font selector on my website
Font selector code JavaScript - the JavaScript portion of code I made to implement a working font selector on my website
freeCodeCamp - free coding courses and certifications
The Odin Project - full stack web development curriculum, open source
Developer Roadmaps - community-made roadmaps for self-taught developers
GTmetrix - shows how fast your site loads and gives recommendations on how to improve load times
Cappuccicons - free icons, alternative to Font Awesome
XP.css - CSS framework mimicking the look of Windows XP operating systems
Indieseek.xyz - an indie web directory
Archetype - experiment with font and spacing options and see a live preview of what they'd look like on a webpage
Porkbun - cheap domain and web hosting provider with free WHOIS privacy (not having your private information publicly available and linked to your domain name which normally happens when you buy a domain unless you pay a fee) included with every domain
Whatruns - free browser extension for Firefox that tells you what a website uses to run
Inclusive Components - a blog about designing inclusive and accessible web interfaces, with example code
WAVE Web Accessibility Tool - scans a webpage and identifies potential accessibility improvements
ACA 80x15 web badge maker - make a web badge
Sadgrl's 88x31 button maker - make a button for your website
A Field Guide to Web Accessibility - an informative guide about web accessibility
Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List - huge list of tools that assist in helping create accessible websites
SCM Music Player - customizable music player for your website
Resources - Bechnokid's resources, tutorials, and code snippets, including making an RSS feed reader for status.cafe and implementing Freezeframe JS (so animated GIFs don't play by default until hovered over or until the user clicks a button, important for accessibility)
Mobile Friendly via CSS - a tutorial by Dannarchy on making your website mobile-friendly
Website Carbon - calculates your website's carbon footprint, recommend pairing this with GTmetrix for specific recommendations as optimizing how fast your website loads will generally reduce its carbon footprint
Native Neocities Hit-Counter - a tutorial by Dannarchy on making a native Neocities hit-counter for your website
Cbox - free chatbox for your website
You Don't Need JavaScript - a collection of ways to do things typically done with JavaScript, without JavaScript
Creating your own website - a guide by 32-Bit Cafe
Zonelets - a simple, free blogging engine
Melonking's intro to the web revival - a series of blog posts on building a website for beginners
Code snippets - useful HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code snippets from Kalechips
sadgrl.online
Yesterlinks
Tinytools directory
32-Bit Cafe's massive resource list
awhe's cool links
30 seconds of code (free code snippets)
Milan's ultimate resource list (not just programming)
doqmeat's links
the garden of madeline's web resources page
Okay, I think that's all the links for now! If you have any questions on this stuff feel free to send me an ask btw, I'm happy to help :D
When you’ve dedicated your life to words, it’s important to go out eloquently.
Ernest Hemingway: “Goodnight my kitten.” Spoken to his wife before he killed himself.
Jane Austen: “I want nothing but death.” In response to her sister, Cassandra, who was asking her if she wanted anything.
J.M Barrie: “I can’t sleep.”
L. Frank Baum: “Now I can cross the shifting sands.”
Edgar Allan Poe: “Lord help my poor soul.”
Thomas Hobbes: “I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap into the dark,”
Alfred Jarry: “I am dying…please, bring me a toothpick.”
Hunter S. Thompson: “Relax — this won’t hurt.”
Henrik Ibsen: “On the contrary!”
Anton Chekhov: “I haven’t had champagne for a long time.”
Mark Twain: “Good bye. If we meet—” Spoken to his daughter Clara.
Louisa May Alcott: “Is it not meningitis?” Alcott did not have meningitis, though she believed it to be so. She died from mercury poison.
Jean Cocteau: “Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking towards me, without hurrying.”
Washington Irving: “I have to set my pillows one more night, when will this end already?”
Leo Tolstoy: “But the peasants…how do the peasants die?”
Hans Christian Andersen: “Don’t ask me how I am! I understand nothing more.”
Charles Dickens: “On the ground!” He suffered a stroke outside his home and was asking to be laid on the ground.
H.G. Wells: “Go away! I’m all right.” He didn’t know he was dying.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “More light.”
W.C. Fields: “Goddamn the whole fucking world and everyone in it except you, Carlotta!” “Carlotta” was Carlotta Monti, actress and his mistress.
Voltaire: “Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.” When asked by a priest to renounce Satan.
Dylan Thomas: “I’ve had 18 straight whiskies…I think that’s the record.”
George Bernard Shaw: “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.”
Henry David Thoreau: “Moose…Indian.”
James Joyce: “Does nobody understand?”
Oscar Wilde: “Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.”
Bob Hope: “Surprise me.” He was responding to his wife asking where he wanted to be buried.
Roald Dahl’s last words are commonly believed to be “you know, I’m not frightened. It’s just that I will miss you all so much!” which are the perfect last words. But, after he appeared to fall unconscious, a nurse injected him with morphine to ease his passing. His actual last words were a whispered “ow, fuck”
Salvador Dali hoped his last words would be “I do not believe in my death,” but instead, they were actually, “Where is my clock?”
Emily Dickinson: “I must go in, the fog is rising.”
Hello! I replied to this post on Reddit today, trying to compile all the dark academia books I could think of, and then thought that maybe all of you here might find it useful too, so here you go. It is a very, very broad list, a mix of classic and contemporary literature, and there is no set criteria besides having a dark vibe (this includes murder and crime but could just be the way it’s written as well) and portraying an academic setting, most of the time from the student’s point of view. I haven’t read all of these myself and so I can’t judge on quality, but hopefully this will inspire people to add on to it in the comments.
Here you go!
The Lessons by Naomi Alderman Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson The Secret History, Donna Tartt If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio Maurice by E. M. Forster The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Possession by A.S. Byatt The Truants by Kate Weinberg The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark Vicious by V. E. Schwab The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater (tangentially related) A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro The Likeness by Tana French The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (coming out tomorrow!) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman Oleanna by David Mamet Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Other classics that are not Dark Academia in content, but which I would include in a list of the DA canon: The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer Shakespeare’s plays (Macbeth, Hamlet are good ones to start with) A Separate Peace, John Knowles The Bacchae, Euripides Greek tragedies (a good one to start with is Antigone, very popular and staged many a time) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Beat generation literature Jane Austen’s books (light academia, anyone?)
I’ve seen a lot of curious people wanting to dive into classical music but don’t know where to start, so I have written out a list of pieces to listen to depending on mood. I’ve only put out a few, but please add more if you want to. hope this helps y’all out. :)
stereotypical delightful classical music:
battalia a 10 in d major (biber)
brandenburg concerto no. 5
brandenburg concerto no. 3
symphony no. 45 - “farewell” (haydn)
if you need to chill:
rondo alla turca
fur elise
anitra’s dance
in the steppes of central asia (borodin) (added by viola-ology)
if you need to sleep:
moonlight sonata
swan lake
corral nocturne
sleep (eric whitacre) (added by thelonecomposer)
if you need to wake up:
morning mood
summer (from the four seasons)
buckaroo holiday (if you’ve played this in orch you might end up screaming instead of waking up joyfully)
if you are feeling very proud:
pomp and circumstance
symphony no. 9 (beethoven; this is where ode to joy came from)
1812 overture
symphony no. 5, finale (tchaikovsky) (added by viola-ology)
american (dvořák)
if you feel really excited:
hoedown (copland)
bacchanale
spring (from the four seasons) (be careful, if you listen to this too much you’ll start hating it)
la gazza ladra
death and the maiden (schubert)
if you are angry and you want to take a baseball bat and start hitting a bush:
dance of the knights (from the romeo and juliet suite by prokofiev)
winter, mvt. 1 (from the four seasons)
symphony no. 10 mvt. 2 (shostakovich)
symphony no. 5 (beethoven)
totentanz (liszt)
quartet no. 8, mvt. 2 (shostakovich) (added by viola-ology)
young person’s guide to the orchestra, fugue (britten) (added by iwillsavemyworld)
symphony no. 5 mvt. 4 (shostakovich) (added by eternal-cadenza)
marche slave (tchaikovsky) (added by eternal-cadenza)
if you want to cry for a really long time:
fantasia based on russian themes (rimsky-korsakov)
adagio for strings (barber)
violin concerto in e minor (mendelssohn)
aase’s death
andante festivo
vocalise (rachmaninoff) (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)
if you want to feel like you’re on an adventure:
an american in paris (gershwin)
if you want chills:
danse macabre
russian easter overture
egmont overture (added by shayshay526)
if you want to study:
eine kleine nachtmusik
bolero (ravel)
serenade for strings (elgar)
scheherazade (rimsky-korsakov) (added by viola-ology)
pines of rome, mvt. 4 (resphigi) (added by viola-ology)
if you really want to dance:
capriccio espagnol (rimsky-korsakov)
blue danube
le cid (massenet) (added by viola-ology)
radetzky march
if you want to start bouncing in your chair:
hopak (mussorgsky)
les toreadors (from carmen suite no.1)
if you’re about to pass out and you need energy:
hungarian dance no. 1
hungarian dance no. 5
if you want to hear suspense within music:
firebird
in the hall of the mountain king
ride of the valkyries
night on bald mountain (mussorgsky) (added by viola-ology)
if you want a jazzy/classical feel:
rhapsody in blue
jazz suite no. 2 (shostakovich) (added by eternal-cadenza)
if you want to feel emotional with no explanation:
introduction and rondo capriccioso
unfinished symphony (schubert)
symphony no. 7, allegretto (beethoven) (added by viola-ology)
canon in d (pachelbel)
if you want to sit back and have a nice cup of tea:
st. paul’s suite
concerto for two violins (vivaldi)
l’arlésienne suite
concierto de aranjuez (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)
pieces that don’t really have a valid explanation:
symphony no. 40 (mozart)
cello suite no. 1 (bach)
polovtsian dances
enigma variations (elgar) (added by viola-ology)
perpetuum mobile
moto perpetuo (paganini)
pieces that just sound really cool:
scherzo tarantelle
dance of the goblins
caprice no. 24 (paganini)
new world symphony, allegro con fuoco (dvorak) (added by viola-ology)
le tombeau de couperin (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)
carnival of the animals (added by shadowraven45662)
if you feel like listening to concertos all day (I do not recommend doing that):
concerto for two violins (bach)
concerto for two violins (vivaldi)
violin concerto in a minor (vivaldi)
violin concerto (tchaikovsky) (added by iwillsavemyworld)
violin concerto in d minor (sibelius) (added by eternal-cadenza)
cello concerto in c (haydn)
piano concerto, mvt. 1 (pierne) (added by iwillsavemyworld)
harp concerto in E-flat major, mvt. 1 (added by iwillsavemyworld)
and if you really just hate classical music in general:
4′33″ (cage)
a lot of these pieces apply in multiple categories, but I sorted them by which I think they match the most. have fun exploring classical music!
also, thank you to viola-ology, iwillsavemyworld, shayshay526, eternal-cadenza, tropicalmunchakoopas, shadowraven45662, and thelonecomposer for adding on! if you would like to add on your own suggestions, please reblog and add on or message me so I can give you credit for the suggestion!
This is part 1 of a few on dystopia that I’ll be publishing every Monday because I find it incredibly interesting that we are so fascinated by societies that are going horribly wrong.
#55daysofvocabulary
Jewellery
Love
Grain
Forest
Kitchen | Kitchen 2
Family | family 2
Make up
Clothing
Computer activity
Musical instrument
Wedding
Tableware
Easter
Spring
Favorite dish
Friendship
Pets
Bedroom
Outdoor activities
Breakfast
Bevarage
Night out
Crafting
Christmas
Lunch
Accessories
Body
Book genre
Birthday
Summer
Beach
Dinner
Meat
Film genre
Holiday
Vegetarian Food
Work
Hair cut
Living room
Dairy
School
Autumn
Bakery
Cutlery
City buildings
Electronic device
Bathroom
Fish
Winter
Vegetables
Board games
Garden
Fruit
Decoration
Take away food
Animals & Plants:
Animali | More
Cane & Gatto
Giardini, Orti, Fiori, Piante
Uccelli
Curiosities:
– Piemontese / Inglese –
Abbreviations/Acronyms
Basta!
Che noia!
Ho fame
I’m sorry
sbucciare, sgusciare, pelare
Ho sonno | Buonanotte/ Sleep
Tumblr Terms | Tumblr dashboard | Social media
Opposites words + drawings
What do you do? (FARE expressions)
Random Vocabs -> FR/ES/EN/IT: uno | due | -> FR/EN/IT: uno -> IT: uno
Food:
Cibi & Bevande | Dolci
Caffè
Colazione / Breakfast
Cooking/Baking | More
Pasti / Meals
Holidays:
Amore / San Valentino | direct approach slang words
Carnevale
Christmas Vocabulary | NYE
Halloween | Ognissanti (1st/2nd of November)
Pasqua/Easter
People & Needs:
Appoinments/Invitations
Body | from head to shoulders | from shoulders to belly | from belly to feet
Describing people (physical + feelings + emotions)
Clothes
Complimenting
Emergenze (Emergencies)
Endearment words | Pet names | Ti amo VS Ti voglio bene VS Mi piaci
Hairdresser / Parrucchiere
Introduce yourself
Lgbtqa Vocabulary | Lgbt+ | non binary (writing)
People
Period
Pick up lines
Primo Soccorso / Medical Vocab | Medical vocab II | Medical Vocab III
Refugees | Phrasebook for refugees
Places:
A casa
Al cinema
Al mare / In spiaggia
Al ristorante
Countries (countryside + Nations)
Directions/Ways/Streets (Tourism/Lost in a town)
Dove?
Fly to Italy
Geografia + Astronomia
In città
In montagna
Libreria / Biblioteca
Negozi (shops)
Ocean
Places
Scuola
Working at the office
Random Stuff:
Adjectives
Appliances (kitchen)
Arte /Art
Astrology | Space | Astrologists and Tarot readers
Colori | Colors things
Careers
Driving-related
Emotions
Fantasy (genre)
Farm Words (ENG; FRA; ITA)
Free time | Hobbies
Internet
Math (video + vocabs)
Make up
Musical instruments | Music
Nautical terms
News
Quando? | Che giorno è oggi?
Phone related
Politics
Positive Vibes
Scrittura (writing)
Speaking / Writing
Sport | Football (World Cup)
Squid Game
Things you do in the morning
Tourism and travels
Verbi
War / Ukraine’s invasion
Seasons / Weather:
Autunno | p2
Che tempo fa?
Cold/Freddo | How to say the weather is crazy cold
Estate | How to say the weather is crazy hot
Winter Vocabulary
Oggi piove | Rain
Natural disasters
Reaction words
just kidding you're not a dummy, you're some hot stuff right there! i will be going through the entire iliad and giving you a general overview, some interesting plot points, additional context, and some other analysis tools to better help you understand the epic!
This post will serve as a table of contents (at the end) to my Iliad posts and a general overview that I will be constantly updating! I am using the Richmond Lattimore translation of the Iliad, alongside my companion book by Malcom M. Wilcock
Before we get into analyzing the actual Iliad, we need to get into some essential questions and context about the book
The Iliad was written by Homer (this is actually debated but we can get into that later) around 750 and 550 B.C.E.
At its core, the story is about heros and humans. It's an Iron Age poem about an event, the Trojan War, that was supposed to have taken place in the Bronze age. The Iliad is considered to be a poem comprised of multiple books, 24 to be exact
This story is only a few days of the tenth and final year of the Greek siege against the city of Troy- this means it relies on the audience already knowing most of the basic details about the Trojan war and the gods themselves (don't sorry, I will provide this for you as we go along)
The age old question: who the fuck is Homer?
Literally nothing is known about this dude except that he wrote (or was credited with writing) the Odyssey and the Iliad
People have referenced his writings for EONS. Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, Callinus, and even Sappho have referenced the poems of Homer in their own works. These also were popular in fine art in the late 7th century B.C.E.
There is a general consensus that Homer was from Ionia- a territory in western Anatolia or modern day Turkey that was populated by Greeks who spoke the Ionian dialect, aka the birthplace of Greek philosophy. Want more info on Ionia? Click Here!
His descendants were called the Homerids/Homeridae
There is scholarly debate on if he even wrote both the Iliad and the Odyssey, or if he only wrote one, etc etc etc. This is due to some very specific differences in the structure of the words used (like the use of short vowels, and the seemingly unimportant semivowel of the digamma being missing from the epics...yeah it's a lot)
The poems were reproduced ORALLY. This means that the poems were passed down by word of mouth, which if I were to sit and listen to this entire book via a guy singing at me...idk man I think I would leave
All of this to say, we really don't know who Homer is. There's a lot more information about what he could have looked like, if he really did write the Iliad, and a million other things, but I've already talked your ear off and we haven't even gotten into the book yet. If you want more information about Homer, check out my sources at the end of the post!
Yeah. There were nine layers exposed at the site of where Troy was expected to be, and nearly fifty sublayers at the mound of Hisarlik
Troy was a vassal state: meaning it had an obligation to a superior state, which happened to be the Hittite Empire
Troy had a lot more allies than original fighters in the city, meaning they had many language barriers- making the army harder to control than the unified Greek enemy.
Cause - Effect - Solution
The poem is concluded with a mirror image of its beginning: an old man ventures to the camp of his enemy in order to ransom his child
The poem foreshadows the death of Achilles in MULTIPLE passages! He knows he is destined to die young if he fights at Troy, and the demise of his lover (don't fight me on this) Patroclus gives us an even more extended foreshadowing of the grief that is to come
When Achilles dies, Thetis (his mom) takes his body from the pyre and takes him to a place called the White Island. It's not clear whether he is immortalized BUT the reference to Achilles funeral in the Odyssey states that Achilles is cremated and his bones are placed in a golden urn along those of Patroclus, and the urn is entombed under a prominent mound (tsoa fans...you're welcome)
This isn't really necessary knowledge but moreso something I think is cool: the backstory from the Iliad of an abducted bride also appears in the Sanskirt epic Ramayana (circa 4th century B.C.E.)
Humanity is the center of the universe in the Iliad. Humans motivations and concerns generate action in the poem, while the gods are often reduced to the role of enablers or spectators
The style of the poem collaborates with the vision that the speciousness of this epic means that every thought and gesture, spear cast and threat, intimate conversation and lament CAN be recorded. It gives a consciousness behind the demands of the iliad that these interactions MUST be recorded, this attention to detail is another way of showing centrality and the worth of the human experience (Greek OR Trojan)
The Iliad is ultimately a poem about death, the chief elements that distinguish the mortals from gods are: Death shadows every action, and death is neither abhorred nor celebrated. Instead it crystalizes by means of this one theme, death in battle, the essence of what it means to be human (Life is a struggle each person will always lose, the question is how one acts with that knowledge)
Modern readers and analysis blogs will state that one's inner spirit is somehow the "real" self, however the Iliad assumes the opposite: The psykhai (soul, spirits) of dying heroes fly off to Hades while their autous ("selves") are left behind in the form of dead bodies
Glory is INCREDIBLY important in the iliad, why? If mortals could live forever (like gods) then glory would be useless. It's a commodity to be exchanged, and because of this it has an economic and symbolic reality
Companionship is incredibly important
Pity is also very important, it's the concluding note of the poem. Even the gods feel pity
The Iliad gains depth by the divine dimension shedding glory on the humans at Troy. The gods are so intensely concerned with warriors and their fates which elevates the mortals to a special plane
Mortals are only separated from gods because they grow old and die
The symbiotic bond of gods and mortals is always see-sawing between adoration and antagonism
Humans who get too close to the gods risk being struck down, case in point, Achilles. He's young, well-made, he's a warrior but also a singer/musician (the only hero to be seen doing such a thing), he looks and acts like Apollo. THEREFORE...it's no coincidence that Apollo is ultimately the god who slays Achilles, just as he did Patroclus
Poetry supplemented or even guided ancient Greek religious interpretation much more than the activity of priests due to the lack of any official religious text. This gave ancient Hellenism a very fluid nature
This was a long post, and it's only the first of many! I will continuously update this with more sources about the Iliad and answer any FAQs that come up! I love classic literature, and as a STEM student I need to entertain my passion somehow lol. There is a table of contents at the top of the post, as well as right here. This will be updated for each book of the Iliad I write about, as well as any supplemental posts I make about certain topics and themes as I go along. I am putting a LOT of work into this series of posts, so let me know your thoughts or anything you'd like me to change/add/etc! Happy reading!
(This is empty because this is the only post...more posts coming soon)
Homer- Britannica
Homerids- Britannica
Who Is Homer- The British Museum (fuck the British Museum)
Ionia Information- World Encyclopedia
The Hittites- Britannica
Ramayana Overview- British Library
Overview of Greek Mythology- Theoi
The Iliad- Overview via Britannica
Thetis- World Encyclopedia
This is a compiled list of some of my favorite pieces of short horror fiction, ranging from classics to modern-day horror, and includes links to where the full story can be read for free. Please be aware that any of these stories may contain subject matter you find disturbing, offensive, or otherwise distressing. Exercise caution when reading. Image art is from Scarecrow: Year One.
PSYCHOLOGICAL: tense, dread-inducing horror that preys upon the human psyche and aims to frighten on a mental or emotional level.
“The Frolic” by Thomas Ligotti, 1989
“Button, Button” by Richard Matheson, 1970
“89.1 FM” by Jimmy Juliano, 2015
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892
“Death at 421 Stockholm Street“ by C.K. Walker, 2016
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1973
“An Empty Prison” by Matt Dymerski, 2018
“A Suspicious Gift” by Algernon Blackwood, 1906
CURSED: stories concerning characters afflicted with a curse, either by procuring a plagued object or as punishment for their own nefarious actions.
“How Spoilers Bleed” by Clive Barker, 1991
“A Warning to the Curious” by M.R. James, 1925
“each thing i show you is a piece of my death” by Stephen J. Barringer and Gemma Files, 2010
“The Road Virus Heads North” by Stephen King, 1999
“Ring Once for Death” by Robert Arthur, 1954
“The Mary Hillenbrand Cassette“ by Jimmy Juliano, 2016
“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs, 1902
MONSTERS: tales of ghouls, creeps, and everything in between.
“The Curse of Yig” by H.P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, 1929
“The Oddkids” by S.M. Piper, 2015
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” by Richard Matheson
“The Graveyard Rats” by Henry Kuttner, 1936
“Tall Man” by C.K. Walker, 2016
“The Quest for Blank Claveringi“ by Patricia Highsmith, 1967
“The Showers” by Dylan Sindelar, 2012
CLASSICS: terrifying fiction written by innovators of literary horror.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, 1843
“The Interlopers” by Saki, 1919
“The Statement of Randolph Carter“ by H.P. Lovecraft, 1920
“The Damned Thing” by Ambrose Pierce, 1893
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving, 1820
“August Heat” by W.F. Harvey, 1910
“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, 1843
SUPERNATURAL: stories varying from spooky to sober, featuring lurking specters, wandering souls, and those haunted by ghosts and grief.
“Nora’s Visitor” by Russell R. James, 2011
“The Pale Man” by Julius Long, 1934
“A Collapse of Horses” by Brian Evenson, 2013
“The Jigsaw Puzzle” by J.B. Stamper, 1977
“The Mayor Will Make A Brief Statement and then Take Questions” by David Nickle, 2013
“The Night Wire” by H.F. Arnold, 1926
“Postcards from Natalie” by Carrie Laben, 2016
UNSETTLING: fiction that explores particularly disturbing topics, such as mutilation, violence, and body horror. Not recommended for readers who may be offended or upset by graphic content.
“Survivor Type” by Stephen King, 1982
“I’m On My Deathbed So I’m Coming Clean…” by M.J. Pack, 2018
“In the Hills, the Cities” by Clive Barker, 1984
“The New Fish” by T.W. Grim, 2013
“The Screwfly Solution” by Racoona Sheldon, 1977
“In the Darkness of the Fields” by Ho_Jun, 2015
“The October Game” by Ray Bradbury, 1948
“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison, 1967
HAPPY READING, HORROR FANS!
winter book recommendations ❄️
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa
Death with Interruptions by José Saramago
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov
The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin
buy me a coffee